Welcome to the Sutton Council Consultation and Engagement Hub

We secured a £14.1 million grant from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund to transform public transport to the London Cancer Hub (LCH) in Belmont. The London Cancer Hub is currently under development and is set to become the world’s leading district for cancer research and treatment bringing 13,000 new jobs in health, science, education and construction to the area.

Sutton Council is working with Network Rail to double train services from two to four trains an hour, with additional direct services between Belmont Station and London Victoria. In December 2023, the Council asked local people about walking and cycling between Belmont Station and the London Cancer Hub.

We shared suggestions on how to improve the walking/cycling route in December 2023, giving the opportunity to comment via an online questionnaire and drop in event, held at the Cancer Hub site.

We received 65 completed questionnaires and feedback from 9 visitors in this initial engagement period.

Key findings included:

• Agreement on the need for improvements around Belmont Station, including increased train frequency and a  better walking/cycling route to the London Cancer Hub.
• Support for specific suggestions, such as a new pedestrian/cycling route via Pelton Avenue and improvements to Brighton Road.
• Concerns raised about issues such as parking, flooding at the station and potential traffic congestion from new crossings.
• Positive feedback on enhancements such as increased green spaces and pedestrian access improvements.
• Other issues were raised that are outside the scope for this project and these are noted for consideration during the wider development. 
   

The feedback has been used to inform further design development and a further round of consultation on the more develped proposals will take place during July 2024.

Our Home to School Assisted Travel service provides support to help children and young people to travel to school or college when they would otherwise be prevented by disability or need.

We asked for your views on proposals to change the way assisted travel is provided in Sutton and updates to the Sutton Home to School Assisted Travel policy. There were two main reasons to consider changes:

Increasing costs and demand - in 2015/16, £4.2 million was spent on home to school travel assistance. This year we are expecting to spend almost £8.3 million - this is an increase of over 76%. With demand for travel assistance continuing to increase, and the cost of delivering that provision increasing, the current way that travel assistance is provided is unlikely to be affordable in the future. 

Preparation for adulthood – we want to explore more ways that young people can be supported to travel to their place of learning independently in the future. 

We received 155 responses to the online survey. A record of the consultation findings and decisions that were made can be found on the Council’s website (opens in a new window).

Each family receiving the Home to School Travel Assistance will be contacted individually to confirm travel assistance arrangements for September 2024.

A summary of key changes is included below:

 For all children and young people (ages 5-25) 

• To promote the Council’s free Independent Travel Training (ITT) offer more widely with families, where need and age-appropriate (11+ years)  

• To increase the use of Personal Travel Budgets (PTBs). A Personal Travel Budget (PTB) is a flexible payment made directly to families, designed to help them to get their child or young person to school or college. 

• Councillors decided not to use central pick-up points.

Under 5s 

• The Council will not provide any home to school travel assistance for children under 5 years old and attending pre-school, as they are under statutory school age. However, 4 -year olds entering Reception will be supported if they meet the eligibility criteria on need or distance. 

 Post-16 

• Where organised transport is being provided by the Council (e.g. coach, minibus, taxi) families of post 16 learners (young people aged 16 - 19) will be asked to make a contribution to the costs of that provision – £800 a year or £400 for families on a low income. This charge will not apply to families receiving a Personal Travel Budget or mileage payments. 

• Where organised transport is being provided by the Council (e.g. coach, minibus, taxi) a fixed drop off and pick up time will be introduced at the start and end of the college/school day. This replaces personalised services around individual timetables.  

We asked for feedback from Children’s Centre users, about the impact of Children’s Centre Services and the approach to running sessions in the community. 

Children’s Centre users were overwhelmingly positive regarding the services and the impact they have on them and their family. Many users said they wanted to see more services in the community. A few people raised concern regarding our booking system and the start times of sessions. 

We have reviewed the start times of various sessions for the September programmes, so there is more variation. We acknowledge the concerns related to the booking system and in response we have implemented a new approach.  Tickets for each session are now released throughout the week rather than all in one go to allow for people to be able to book on at different times. We will continue to review the way we manage this. Your feedback will help us review our services going forward.